The Squire Summer Writing Workshops run July 13-16 at Appalachian State University. This intimate and focused weekend offers conferencegoers the chance to study elements of one genre with one instructor over the course of the program. Attendees will work on their own manuscripts, as well as those of their peers, while also attending readings, special presentations, and taking advantage of built-in writing time, amid the beauty and majesty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Joseph Bathanti will lead the class in poetry, "Writing the Longer Narrative Poem." Sheryl Monks will lead the fiction course, "How Bad Things Happen to Good Characters: Compression, Tension, and Catharsis in Fiction." Eric G. Wilson will lead the creative nonfiction workshop, "Creating Presence: Voice in Creative Nonfiction."

Boone, home to Appalachian State University, is the cultural center of North Carolina's High Country. TripAdvisor named this small town, which is a popular vacation destination, the number-two "Diamond in the Rough," and National Geographic named it among its "Best Places to Live and Play." Along with great breweries, restaurants, and local businesses, Boone typically boasts temperatures no warmer than 76 degrees, which will come as quite a relief to many Squire Summer Writing Workshops registrants by mid-July.

Tailypo is the first in Granite Falls Brewing Company's new Appalachian Storytellers series based on the legends and tall tales that arose in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where their brewery was born.

Aged in thirty-year-old Nicaraguan rum barrels and ringing in at an imposing 14.9 percent ABV, it is a brew for the discerning beer lover. Notes of raisin, date, and fig play with undertones of chocolate, molasses, and brown sugar to create a complex tapestry of flavor that is both unique and unforgettable. 14.9 percent ABV is the highest ABV allowed by North Carolina law.

For more information about the Squire Summer Writing Workshops, and to register, click here.

The non-profit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to all writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.